We Went To Turkey!

In the end of 2013, STN went on their first ‘pioneer’ trip to Turkey. Today, staff member Gisele Pitot shares a little about the trip:

“When I think of a pioneer I picture a David Livingstone-esque character: grizzly and sweaty, hacking through the jungle with a machete while mosquitos feast on him. I picture safari hats and lot of khaki. But on an STN pioneer trip, things look a little different (although we still had some grizzly men!). Skateboards, stickers, cameras, GPS signals and the odd map were our tools in our very first trip to the Eurasian country of Turkey.

We left the American turkeys behind us as we flew out of Hawaii on Thanksgiving Day last year, setting off on a 25-day adventure to this foreign land. Our crew of 11 came from as far as Australia, South Africa, Sweden, Hawaii, North Carolina and Canada but we all had the same question in common – is Turkey a place where the message of “Surfers Giving Back” can thrive? And besides the lack of waves (this is where the skating came in) the answer was a resounding ‘yes’!

There are only 25 surfers in the entire country of Turkey. The surf community is slowly growing and their enthusiasm for surfing cannot be matched. In places where the surf industry is already booming, there are also negative habits and lifestyles that often follow. Yet, Turkey remians untouched by the dark sides of surf culture. The surfing lifestyle there is healthy and positive. When the waves weren’t good, we grabbed skateboards and spent time hanging out with locals, skating any ramp or street we could. The friends we made were not only passionate about board riding but also about using their passion of surfing to bring unity and positive change in their communities.

From the epic history of Istanbul and Ephesus, the beautiful relationships built with the surfers of the Black Sea and the Danube Surf Academy, all the way down to the sunny southern Mediterranean city of Alanya, this was a trip to remember. We are stoked to return to Turkey and give back through surfing in 2014!” -GP

Here are a few photos from the trip. View the entire set on our Flickr!